Feather Fall
by Kasan Soulblade
Summary: A series of one shots, centered around "Song of the Seagulls".  5th story: Counting:  Because arithmatic was part of the game, and all who played needed to be able to count to at least three.
1. Belated Eudcation

Feather Fall

Chapter one,

The things you learn…

_A/N: This is a companion project for "Song of the Seagulls". I want to return to the project but am having cold feet, to combat that I'm running a series of skits, short stories, ecetera under this title and all stories here are going to be based on the "Song" scenario of my WindWaker fic. This is a tactic I use when I've got writer's block on a larger project, it's just the first time I've actually published my... hmm I'd guess you call it my "drawing board" notes for a fic in public._

_It's mainly to remedy the lack of LOZ attention that's in my account. I hope all enjoy,_

_Kasan Soulblade._

There were some things he'd learned not to investigate. He knew he'd gone mad in times so long ago they predated the islanders "once upon a time" and that knowledge made him weary. Weary of the darkest, twisted, corridors in his mind. Where those crippled by sanity and compassion did not peak. Thus, though not crippled by such things, he abstained from inquiry about those peculiar blanks in his memory. While these spans were frustrating at times it was the best course for the remnants of the world.

For if sanity was a delicate thing than it was doubly fragile for those who'd been mad once before.

So he adamantly did not investigate when he heard the most peculiar sounds out his door way. The girl's hollering might have warranted a quick peak, but when Wolfkaunos barked something of the effect of "come back right now!" Ganondorf knew the matter was well in hand.

And that the girl would easily slip out of those hands, scamper away, and cause as much havoc as possible. Still Wolfkaunos would keep it from being of the incendiary kind, and that's all that mattered.

Other noises sounded, a Moblin howling, a Wall Master's irate humming, indicating it was on the chase of something, and the somewhat hysterical "two"ing of a certain shadow chu-chu.

Though the sounds drew near he did not open his window and look out, sad experience taught him it was better that way.

Because the one time it had gotten to his door he looked outside. Dropped his characteristic belligerence and was curious enough to look in on the play.

And, well, he'd learned a few things. That shadow chu-chus were horribly ticklish, green jelly could burn in the bottle, and if it was shaken while burning, without a lid, it would explode like a mobile volcano.

There were just some things one could go centuries without learning.

He'd learned other things that day too. That green jell did not come out of anything. Wolfkaunos had known, had replaced an armguard and the breastplate of his armor rather than fool around with oil and rubbing to get the muck off.

Ganondorf, made overconfident by his ages of knowledge, the fact he possessed the Triforce of Power, had decided to ignore Wisdom's call and had tried to clean the stuff off. For all his efforts, through soakings, scrubbings, and scrapings, Ganondorf had been force to concede that the Wolfos Knight had known what he was doing.

In a frenzy of frustrated cleaning the Gerudo had worn a hole in his robes, several holes, and after that miss-adventure had decided a burning would do. So he indulged in a spot of arson, swept the remains of the clothes outside, and had aired out his quarters.

He'd also invested in a lock.

It was an oddity for a thief to own a lock. Silly really. He could pick the lock, any lock ever made, actually. His people were a race of thieves and all and he'd been king of the thieves. On, reflection, he mused as he stood, pulling said lock from its place on a nearby table. Due to his Goddess' benevolence he could just break any door down ever made, being the Bearer of the Triforce of Power did have its benefits.

He could, also, in an emergency incinerate, overpower, and chop and dice any would be interloper, intruder, or irritant. Well, in most cases. His present... guest… and her antics had more than shown that he'd lost a bit of his edge over the centuries. Perhaps, he was, as the Hylian's said, "getting soft". If so, it might be reasonable, six thousand years and all having passed from his stories violent start to the rather ho hum span he was immersed in now.

But then, considering how he'd decimated his latest foe (said foe was pinning the remains of its miserable life in an animal pen, stripped of all wit and knowledge and there it would stay until some feast required pork), overthrown a coup, all _while_ deprived of his power.

Perhaps not

He'd have to think about that for a while.

Before his door, lock in hand, he snapped it over the knob, muttering a quiet incantation to insure that it wouldn't be picked. Thus security, sanity, and semi quiet assured, Ganondorf Dragos Dragmire went to his desk and its awaiting mess of maps, calculations, and sighed. The ruckus had grown louder, so much for undisturbed plotting.


	2. The Distance Between Ripples

Feather Fall

Section two

Aryll, Link

The Distance between Ripples

She wondered why. Why everything and everyone on Forsaken couldn't swim. Everyone on Outset could. But, unlike outset, all her questions about water, swimming, and even rain brought a pallor to every piggish snout and puffiness to ever canine Wolfos tail.

Yes, Din was of Fire, and all her people were, Kaun had said so, but _really_…

Water never bit anyone.

Water came in small little cups. It pooled pure and salt free atop each island, and islandlet. As for the seas, they were big licking against beaches and chasing the horizon. But while it was big… alright… huge, huge didn't mean bad.

Well except for one particular meanie bird, but _that _was different.

So she was left to wonder for a long long time.

Long after rescues, and adventures on pirate ships, they sat side by side and stared at the sea. It wasn't bad, not really, and while the clouds on the horizon –wind sent, the air was thick with their coming and promised rain as well as storm- she twiddled with an old question in her mind.

Her old question, and all unknowingly, big brother's answer.

You see, he'd told her a tale. He'd slipped, slipped with her hanging on every word. He'd looked up, error realized, and flushed, looked away, and she'd let it drop.

But he had let something out, something he'd been told on his travels.

Something he wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Like how she wasn't supposed to talk to anyone about what she'd seen.

"They say… it rained so much that they lost a world under the Goddesses'…"

He stopped then, looked at her with something like horror. He'd never meant… but it had been said, and hung between them, incomplete.

Horror faded, the fear that he'd said too much was on the decline. He smiled, like all the other slip ups, shrugged as if to say he didn't know what else to say, or to make what had tumbled out seem trivial. And she'd smiled, because he expected her too.

Then, both went back to staring at the ocean, because it was something to do. Both pretended to think of nothing at all.

But her mind was racing, as realization came, and came bitter, just as _he_ warned it would. Big brother _had_ been told! She was sure of it now. Just like _she'd_ been told. Not to tell a single soul, because they wouldn't be believed at best… and bad things could happen to them at worst. And, because she trusted the person who'd told her this, because she trusted him despite the fact he could be… alright he usually was… a bit(really) scary she held to her promise, for now.

Something bitter and bright flashed into her eyes. Aryll blinked, closed her dark eyes against the glare as the light hit water just so and glinted of the seas razor edge. Her eyes burned, and she blinked, suddenly knowing how big brother's tale ended.

As for him, his eyes were locked on heaven. It approached, distant but drawing near, the dark snarled, spat a line of light across it's own gloom. There one moment, then gone, Link winced at the encroaching storm.

"It's getting late." He wore green now, and always. A hero's color the old tales said.

The tales from home.

Other tales called it a villain's hue.

But she never bothered him with the contradiction. He stood, sand crunching under his boots. She took the hand he offered, but once sure she stood on her own two feet. For a while he was brushing sand of his pans, she worked the gritty scales from her dress and legs.

"Let's go home." Link murmured, one eye watching the storm. Weary of the dark in the cloud's belly.

A bit disappointed, Aryll smiled, hid her sadness with a grin and compliance.

She loved to watch the rain, watch the ripples born of the drops make the oceans so familiar and firm a tattered, textured mess.

She just wouldn't get to see it today, that's all, there'd be other days.

Or nights.

Whichever came first.

"Coming, big brother."

And though there was a breath of a sigh to her words he never heard it, mind worrying about other things.


	3. Alternate Light Source

Feather Fall

Section Three

WormEatter, Fire Eyes

Alternate Light Source

One hand clasped over beak, another snapped over talons, and his wings were tucked under a hairy armpit for good measure. Fire Eyes was quite trussed up for the spit, no rope required.

Still, he squirmed as much as his captivity allwoed. Heaved and writhed, and was nursing a huge headache besdies. A cloth had been tied to his head, a filthy one whose stentch was filing his jammed beak with a small worse than Moblin armpit.

And that was impressive.

Said cloth was doing a fine job of sweping his crown back, pulling on his forehead, and squishing the black and red feathers (to say nothing of re-coloring then, he was trying not to think too hard about what color they'd be when this was all said and done) to hisskull. It also had the unwanted effect of forcing his eyes open. To bulge open. And he couldn't blink.

So eyes forced wide, held in a far too familiar embrace, the avian was hauled down the pitch black hall, tail feathers giving the place it's first honest sweeping in a millenium.

At least.

"Worm Eatter lotsa smart!" His captive cheered himself, would have pated himself on the back, save he'd of dropped his "invention" and it would have gotten away. Not wanting _that_ the piggish creature flashed rotting teeth to the uncaring black. ""Supa smart. no need dumb, stinky torch, Fire Eyes, eyes, really shiny!"

Sweeping his captive low, so low crest joined tailfeathers in the sweeping effort, Wormeatter chortaled to himself. And yes, the span in front of his "light" was lit up quite nicely. A charming blood red span of about two inches that was... actually starting to turn a little darker.

Not noticing the danger signs, the green piglet squealed and scampered into the hall, feeling smarter by the minute.

"Whee!"

It went without saying only one of the two were enjoying themselves.

XXXX

Epilogue: (mild spoilers for anyone who has read up to chapter 11 of "Song")

From the dark there came a scream, barelling out of the shadows, clutching his singed and pecked head, the litlte moblin ran for all he was worth, and ducked behind a befuddled Wolfos gaurd.

"It bit me, an burned me, birdie was bad!"

A growl from under many layers of steel later sounded out. "You were... burned by a bird?"

"A bad bird!" the moblin whimpered, nodding, flopping limp ears flapping it nodded so vigerously.

"Un hun.." the Wolfos gaurd sighed, wondering why all the crazy things happend in this hall way, when he was on duty. "Surre..."


	4. Shadow Shows

Feather Fall

Section four

Character focus: Kaun (Wolfkaunos), Fire Eyes

Shadow Shows

When Kaun woke one day, shambling about his stone walled den in a pre-awake haze, something seemed off. It wasn't major, no kinks in his back (like that time he was a fool and tried to sleep in a hammock) or burs in his tail, so he pushed the feeling back. It was as absent as the motion he used to push aside the loose straw that covered his food pit. Yawning all the while, he went down on his knees, stooped almost double, and thus utterly prone went a-digging into the dank, iron tinged, dark for a morsel.

Again, that nagging idea that something was off still… nagged. But just then a sizable bone with most of its meet attached fell in paw. A quick examination and sniff told him there wasn't a spot of green of whiff of foul.

So niggling concerns were set to the back for a while, and food came to the fore.

That and eating.

In proper Wolfish fashion, exercising all those wolfos manners of snarling and growling and gnawing with your moth open, Wolfkaunos applied himself to breakfast. No hylian… islander… she-pups to tell him he was being gross of whatever that meant. So, for once, he'd have a quiet breakfast, minus the snarling and all.

Well, that was the plan.

He was in the good part of breakfast, nursing rather pedestrian plots of snapping the bone and getting the sweet marrow within when _it_ came.

It wasn't that he didn't hear_ it_, he had just harbored hope _it_ was going to visit someone else.

Screaming, _not_ squawking, but screeching on a truly hair raising scale, the bird barreled in. Setting the cloth flap that the islander-she called a "door" to shivering at the winds of the beast's coming. Sadly it did not get tangled up, fall, and break its neck as it flapped in.

Perhaps he ought to get something a bit more sturdy, not wood, but stone, it warranted some thinking about.

Despite Kaun's mildly broken dreams, (chicken soup had tasted very good, perhaps Kargaroc soup would taste good as well) rolling the bone over in his mouth with a paw on the thick end the Wolfos Knight didn't stop in his eating to say "hi" or any other piggish or islander nonsense. Hardly hurt by the lack of "manners" the bird fluttered to the flat topped, blood soaked, span Aryll had called a table. Scattering bone bits and fur every which way when it landed.

Now assured that it couldn't be missed it went back to screaming, and the sheer volume of that ratty birds calls caused Kaun's fangs to clench.

Bone crinkled, didn't crack all the way, but he pulled out his treat, a touch hurt how it had just bit back. A few moments later and he was sending a questing tongue to find out where the bone bits had gotten jammed in the arch of his mouth. Knowing not to swallow, unless he wanted stomach pains and the runs for a week or more, the Dark Nut considered… Where he should spit out the tidbits?

His "guest" was a reasonable target, in range, and unwanted, but at the last second and a malovent glare on the bird's part, and Wolfkaunos settled to hacking the bone on the floor.

Life wasn't fair sometimes. Ah well, when life gifted you gristle, just chew around. So he chewed at the jags, widening them as the bird danced up and down in impotent rage.

Clearly something was wrong.

"Aw Awk!"

He should care, he supposed, but he just was too busy right then.

With a satisfying crack the gap widened, pinning the bone with his paws he pulled his head back, sending a sheet of reddened brittle bone flying. The bird ducked that, hissed, clearly it did not like being ignored.

Well, Kaun didn't like being without his morning indulgence, and the stupid animal could just wait.

Lapping at his snack, he stared at the black bird. Mind unfogging in stages. Clearly something colossal was wrong, else the bird would have left to go to a more receptive audience (why the she-pup Aryll hung on the silly things every whim was one of Din's own mysteries).

Sine it wasn't going than… it might be serious. It was only when the thing started dancing in rage that Kaun figured it out. Both he, and it, had the same problem. Realizing what was off from earlier he smirked, not too horribly excited, clearly it was birdies first time.

"Talk to the shadow chu-chu." Kaun growled, voice slurred as his tongue was at work worrying at the soft sweet span of marrow.

"Awk!" Accusation in a squawk, once impossible now proven. With a roll of his crimson eyes the Wolfos straightened up, meal forgotten.

"Do I look like I collect shadows?" The Wolfos glowered.

The bird's head tipped as the creature considered, and simmered down, in equal measure.

"Squawk?"

There was definitely a question in the sound. Kaun went back to lapping; still the beast wasn't heading out.

_Stupid bird_.

"It's a game." He explained. "The she-pup was playing with the shadow chu-chu and made a bunny on the wall, two hands, one fisted, one with two fingers spread…" He grunted, twiddled the bone about. "The shadow chu-chu took my shadow in response. I guess she finally came up with another shadow shape, so the chu-chu took your shadow."

"Awk…"

_Tink._

To that sound the Wolfos looked up, with an unexplainably pathetic look the bird was quietly but surely smacking it's head… beak… whatever… into the table top.

Kaun lolled his tongue, couldn't help but adding a dry.

"You do know, they make plays, shadow plays, "once upon a time tales" and the like with those stolen shadows, right?"

_Tink tink tink!_

The bird was Din bent on smacking its brains out on the table.

While tempted to help it along Kaun decided he wasn't that mean and picked up his bone. It was time to eat somewhere else, somewhere quieter, and see about getting a door. Preferably one made out of stone.

_A/N: I just wanted to show some Kaun/Fire Eyes antagonism without the violence of previous conflicts. This is what I came up with. Twee and Aryll kinda snuck in but ah well…_


	5. Counting

Feather Fall

Chapter 5

Twee, Aryll, Kaun, Wormeatter

_Summery: Because counting was one of the requisite rules ever after._

It took a while to compile the facts.

The first hint that something was wrong was the shadow chu chu was hiding. Actually, it merely _thought_ it was hiding. The beast was pooled in the center of a well lit hall, not a good way to hide considering the creature was black as night. Actually it was shard of living night, so perhaps _black as night_ was a redundant descriptor.

Ah well.

The beast's gold eyes were scrunched up, it shivered as he paced by, "two"ing to itself, quivering all the while. Leaving the muck alone, Kaun picked up the pace, claws clicking on the stone as he walked a little faster.

One turn and a stairwell down and he was in a different room. There he found Wormeatter stuffed head first in a pot. Cloven feet kicking. Well, _one_ was kicking. It wasn't a frantic "the air's getting stale" sort of thrashing, but a "I'm bored" sort of motion.

He considered the bound beast, considered asking, then considered the source. Decision reached he went back to looking; knowing the main perpetrator of this _incident_ would be about somewhere.

The last leg of his search actually required effort. A snout to floor, sniff snuff, kind of search that made him glad he was a Wolfos. No pig could search this way, not with any success, and it spared him a number of misadventures amongst the lobster cages if nothing else. Bypassing pots and barrels where he might have searched –most were full of oil, others empty, she'd hidden there a time or two before- he threaded amongst carelessly tossed coils of rope.

Stuck in a forgotten corner, her hiding spot was a touch rank with mold. Nose dead, she hardly had noticed. Nose _not_ dead he took a deep breathe of relatively fresh air before he got to pulling at flaps of rotting sail. Amusing, really, to find her hiding amongst ruins from piracy days centuries ago. An Islander on a pirate ship, well bits of a pirate ship… Funny. Checking a smile, they always alarmed her when she wasn't expecting them, all those sharp teeth or so she'd told him once, he simple allowed his tail to wag and wondered how to wake her. She slept rather deeply for a little she amongst monsters.

A claw poke later and she opened her black eyes wide and yawned in his face. Her head fur was a dirty blonde (truly dirty since she was covered in filth, he foresaw another bath for the she on the horizon) and rather mussed. His claws clicked as he found, and fought the strange impulse to rake his claws through her mane and tidy it up.

It was the clicking of his claws that woke her up the most, so he supposed.

"Mornin' Kaun!"

"Good afternoon." He corrected. "What are you doing this Din's life?"

"Day." She corrected muzzily.

He grunted, shrugged, and she simply smiled, eyes definitely glazed.

"What about we wait for you to wake up, then when your wits are back I'll ask again?" Kaun growled.

Aryll, the she in question, opened her mouth, closed it, then rolled over and snuggled torn canvas sails like they were blankets. Squirming about, snug and supposedly warm, she peeped up at him, a worm of sorts bound up in cloth like that.

"Sorta wake now." She murmured.

Considering her that was as good as it was going to get.

"Alright then." Wolfos' could not clear their throats, but he managed a passable hackish cough. "Why in Din's name is there a shadow chu chu "hiding" in the center of the floor, a mokoblin stuffed in a pot, and you out of your cage?"

"I got bored." Aryll informed him.

And while that answered the last question it left the other two unanswered. He glared and she shrugged at the familiar expression. Or rather the upper most span of her warmish bundling lumped just so.

"I dunno what Wormeatter's doin'."

Well that was reasonable enough. Perhaps he should have asked the mokoblin what was going on, on second thought it could remain a mystery.

A little mystery in his life hardly hurt after all.

"Twee's "it" though. He's counting."

"It?" Kaun rumbled.

"Yeah," rolling over, on her back now, she looked up at him, upside down, it wasn't doing much for her sleepiness. She yawned again. "Like in hide and go seek. Whoever's it seeks, and everyone else hides." She kicked the air aimlessly. "Fire Eyes was "it" first, but he just flew off." Her heels tapped a nonsense rhythm against the wooden floors. "Twee was supposed to count to three, then come looking for me, and Wormeatter-" which explained what the green pig was doing, hiding badly, "-but it's been a while now."

"Well, Twee _is _counting." Kaun assured her, heaving a sigh he rolled his crimson eyes. "He was stuck though, on two."

"Two." Aryll muttered, non Wolfos features twisting as she realized… something.

"Two." Kaun growled.

The she thought that over a little, then eyes wide, muttered a contrite. "Oops."

Oops indeed.

"Next time, she pup," Kaun rumbled. "Make sure the person who's "it" can count to three."

"Sorry..." She sighed, then brightened as another thought came to her. "How about _you_? You can count to three ri-"

"Absolutely not!" Kaun roared.

"So, you can't count to three?" Aryll asked, grinning all the while.

With a savage snarl that put her in her place, cringing and creeping back, Kaun told her without words the subject was closed.

And showing how smart a she she was, Aryll didn't bring it up again.


End file.
